Oh the irony: Hacking group Anonymous has Twitter account hacked by rival group

YourAnonNews (YAN), a Tumblr blog and Twitter account that supports the hacktivist movement Anonymous and posts regular tweets about breaking news stories, appears to have been hacked today by a group known as the Rustle League.

Update: Another Twitter account held by Anonymous has since tweeted to say that the updates issued by YourAnonNews were “a practical joke.” It claims the PLF was, however, hacked as previously reported.

Roughly an hour ago (2:30am PT/5:30am ET), the first tweet was published from the @YourAnonNews account – which has 1,103,659 followers at the time of writing – with a hashtag indicating that the Rustle League had gained control.

More than two dozen tweets have since been issued from the account, containing a wide range of racial and potentially offensive language.

The main Anonymous Twitter account recognised the hack before sharing a report by Softpedia. It’s unclear whether the central Anonymous group is assisting YourAnonNews to restore order at this time. Anonymous has also tweeted, however, to say that it has notified both Reuters and the BBC about the takeover.

A seperate Twitter account held by the People’s Liberation Front, an Anonymous-allied hacktivist group, has also been hacked by the Rustle League today. The earliest tweet with the #RustleLeague hash-tag was also sent out roughly an hour ago, suggesting that the takeover was both pre-planned and simultaneous.